With increasing concern as to the availability of oil and gas as home-heating media, there has been considerable development of improved solid-fuel stoves or furnaces which can be utilized as space heaters, i.e. disposed in a room, fueled through an open door and serving to heat this room and connecting spaces.
In fact, wood-burning stoves of this type are already available in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, have doors which can be sealed to prevent uncontrolled entry of air, and are provided with means enabling them to be utilized not only for space heating but for cooling and stove-top heating requirements.
It has already been proposed to make such stoves so that the door can be swung out of the way, thereby exposing the combustion-chamber opening and enabling the unit to act as a fireplace for the open burning of the fuel.
It has also been proposed to provide such stoves with a downwardly and outwardly inclined apron or hood, at least at the front of the stove, resembling the aprons or hoods which are used for smoke catchers on built-in fireplace and the like.
With stack stoves of this type, the hood, which can be merely decorative but also can be utilized as an air guide to increase convective displacement of air to be heated by the stove or even in part as a smoke catcher in a fireplace mode of operation, is upwardly swingable so that the door, hinged at its upper portion, can also be swung upwardly when operation of the heating unit with the open chamber is desired.
This, of course, causes interference with any heating at the top of the stove.